In autumn 2014 those living in Scotland will face the most important political decision of a lifetime. Whether Scotland becomes an independent state once again, as it was before 1707, or remains within the United Kingdom will have profound consequences for everyone in Britain. There are many issues involved in this important choice, but a key part of the debate centres around the question of whether Scotland would prosper more or less after independence. How well off are we? Would we have a faster or slower growing economy if we were independent? What currency would we use - the pound, the euro or a new currency of our own? What should our energy policy be? There are those who would like to see a more egalitarian society, like Scandinavia, with a reduction in poverty and deprivation; would we be likely to achieve that? Would we continue to be in the European Union but with Scotland becoming a member in its own right? Is that right for Scotland and what problems might that involve? In this impartial, clearly expressed and thought-provoking book, economist Gavin McCrone addresses these, and many other, questions which are of vital importance in the run up to the referendum.
In a sweeping vision for the future of work, Neumeier shows that the massive problems of the 21st century are largely the consequence of a paradigm shift—a shuddering gear-change from the familiar Industrial Age to the unfamiliar “Robotic Age,” an era of increasing man-machine collaboration. This change is creating the “Robot Curve,” an accelerating waterfall of obsolescence and opportunity that is currently reshuffling the fortunes of workers, companies, and national economies. It demonstrates how the cost and value of a unit of work go down as it moves from creative to skilled to rote, and, finally, to robotic. While the Robot Curve is dangerous to those with brittle or limited skills, it offers unlimited potential to those with metaskills—master skills that enable other skills. Neumeier believes that the metaskills we need in a post-industrial economy are feeling (intuition and empathy), seeing (systems thinking), dreaming (applied imagination), making (design), and learning (autodidactics). These are not the skills we were taught in school. Yet they’re the skills we’ll need to harness the curve. In explaining each of the metaskills, he offers encouragement and concrete advice for mastering their intricacies. At the end of the book he lays out seven changes that education can make to foster these important talents. This is a rich, exciting book for forward-thinking educators, entrepreneurs, designers, artists, scientists, and future leaders in every field. It comes illustrated with clear diagrams and a 16-page color photo essay. Those who enjoy this book may be interested in its slimmer companion, The 46 Rules of Genius, also by Marty Neumeier. Things you’ll learn in Metaskills: - How to stay ahead of the “robot curve” - How to account for “latency” in your predictions - The 9 most common traps of systems behavior - How to distinguish among 4 types of originality - The 3 key steps in generating innovative solutions - 6 ways to think like Steve Jobs - How to recognize the 3 essential qualities of beauty - 24 aesthetic tools you can apply to any kind of work - 10 strategies to trigger breakthrough ideas - Why every team needs an X-shaped person - How to overcome the 5 forces arrayed against simplicity - 6 tests for measuring the freshness of a concept - How to deploy the 5 principles of “uncluding” - The 10 tests for measuring great work - How to sell an innovative concept to an organization - 12 principles for constructing a theory of learning - How to choose a personal mission for the real world - The 4 levels of professional achievement - 7 steps for revolutionizing education From the back cover "Help! A robot ate my job!" If you haven't heard this complaint yet, you will. Today's widespread unemployment is not a jobs crisis. It's a talent crisis. Technology is taking every job that doesn't need a high degree of creativity, humanity, or leadership. The solution? Stay on top of the Robot Curve--a constant waterfall of obsolescence and opportunity fed by competition and innovation. Neumeier presents five metaskills--feeling, seeing, dreaming, making, and learning--that will accelerate your success in the Robotic Age.
The growth of events and festivals has been significant over the last decade and a wide range of skills are essential to ensure those events are successful. This requirement has been instrumental in stimulating the creation of more tertiary education opportunities to develop events management knowledge. As the discipline develops, knowledge requires direction in order to understand the changing advances in society. This is the first book to take a futures approach to understanding event management. A systematic and pattern-based understanding is used to determine the likelihood of future events and trends. Using blue skies scenarios to provide a vision of the future of events, not only capturing how the events industry is changing but also important issues that will affect events now as well as the future. Chapters include analysis of sustainability, security, impacts of social media, design at both mega event and community level and review a good range of different types of events from varying geographical regions. A final section captures the contributions of each chapter through the formation of a conceptual map for a future research agenda. Written by leading academics in the field, this ground breaking book will be a valuable reference point for educators, researchers and industry professionals.
Sometimes it seems as if business exists purely to enrich a small elite. While the world is facing unprecedented challenges, it appears that businesses are only interested in making profits or paying bonuses. Big businesses are powerful machines. We all know they have the potential to cause enormous social and environmental harm; but with their resources and expertise they can also be great engines of positive change. Rather than fighting the power of business, should we be seeking to harness it? Everybody's Business is a journey through the business world. We meet the companies that are driving business forward by mobilising to tackle the challenges we all face. At its heart, this is a story of businesses doing what they do best: delivering products and services that people need, creating jobs and finding new ways to solve old problems. It's a story of people taking the initiative, and finding inspiration in the positive impact of their actions. We see how some of today's leading companies are realising that lasting success comes from having a purpose broader than making a profit. They know that business should benefit customers, employees, suppliers, neighbours and the wider world, as well as shareholders. Enduring value comes from making business work for everybody.
The UK Government is undertaking a major cross-government programme of analysis prior to the referendum on Scottish independence in 2014. The aim is to provide a comprehensive and detailed analysis of Scotland's place in the UK. This paper, the first of a series to be published in 2013 and 2014, examines the UK's constitutional set-up and the legal implications of independence. The UK Government is convinced that the current devolution offers the best for Scotland: the Scottish Parliament and Government are empowered to take decisions on a range of domestic policy areas - such as health, education, policing - while Scotland continues to benefit from decisions made for the UK as a whole - defence and security, foreign representation, economic affairs. Independence is very different to devolution. Based on independent expert opinion (published as Annex A), the paper concludes that if there were to be a vote in favour of leaving the UK, Scotland would become an entirely new state whilst the remainder of the UK would continue as before, retaining the rights and obligations of the UK as it currently stands. Any separation would have to be negotiated between both governments. Legal and practical implications of independence, both at home and abroad, are addressed. An independent Scotland would have to apply to and/or negotiate to become a member of whichever international organisations it wished to join, including the EU and NATO. Scotland would also have to work through its positions on thousands of international treaties to which the UK is currently party.
An exciting account of the origins of the modern world Who formed the first literate society? Who invented our modern ideas of democracy and free market capitalism? The Scots. As historian and author Arthur Herman reveals, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Scotland made crucial contributions to science, philosophy, literature, education, medicine, commerce, and politics—contributions that have formed and nurtured the modern West ever since. Herman has charted a fascinating journey across the centuries of Scottish history. Here is the untold story of how John Knox and the Church of Scotland laid the foundation for our modern idea of democracy; how the Scottish Enlightenment helped to inspire both the American Revolution and the U.S. Constitution; and how thousands of Scottish immigrants left their homes to create the American frontier, the Australian outback, and the British Empire in India and Hong Kong. How the Scots Invented the Modern World reveals how Scottish genius for creating the basic ideas and institutions of modern life stamped the lives of a series of remarkable historical figures, from James Watt and Adam Smith to Andrew Carnegie and Arthur Conan Doyle, and how Scottish heroes continue to inspire our contemporary culture, from William “Braveheart” Wallace to James Bond. And no one who takes this incredible historical trek will ever view the Scots—or the modern West—in the same way again.
The establishment of the Scottish Parliament was marked by a wave of expectations, hopes and dreams for a better Scotland and a different kind of politics. Tomorrow's Scotland assesses how successful devolution has been in living up to this promise.
Tourism and Politics: Introduction -- Chapter 1: Democracy and Tourism: Exploring the Nature of an Inconsistent Relationship -- Section 1: Politics, Democracy and Organisations -- Chapter 2: Tourism as Political Platform: Residents' Perceptions of Tourism and Voting Behaviour -- Chapter 3: Privatisation during Market Economy Transformation as a Motor of Development -- Chapter 4: Group politics and tourism interest representation at the supranational level. Evidence from the European Union -- Chapter 5: The Politics of Exclusion? Japanese Cultural Reactions and the Government's Desire to Double Inbound Tourism -- Chapter 6: Taming Tourism: Indigenous Rights as a Check to Unbridled Tourism -- Chapter 7: Celebrating or Marketing the indigenous? International right organisations, national governments and tourism creation -- Chapter 8: The Politics of Institution Building and European Co-operation: reflections on an EC-TEMPUS project on Tourism and Culture in Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Chapter 9: Towards the Responsible Management of the Socio-Cultural Impact of Township Tourism -- Chapter 10: Hegemony, globalization and tourism policies in developing countries -- Chapter 11: The Politics of Tourism: Ethnic Chinese Spaces in Malaysia -- Chapter 12: Preparing Now for Tomorrow: The Future for Tourism in Scotland up to 2015 -- Chapter 13: Governing Tourism Monoculture: Mediterranean Mass Tourism Destinations and Governance Networks. -- Chapter 14: 'The MTV Europe Music Awards Edinburgh 03: Delivering Local Inclusion? -- Chapter 15: The Lost Gardens and Airport Expansion: Focalisation in Heritage Landscapes -- Section 3: Circulation, Flows and Security -- Chapter 16: The War is Over so Let the Games Begin -- Chapter 17: Hostile Meeting Grounds: Encounters between the Wretched of the Earth and the Tourist through Tourism and Terrorism in the 21st Century -- Chapter 18: Defending Voyuerism: Dark tourism and the problem of Global Security -- Chapter 19: Rethinking Globalization Theory in Tourism -- Chapter 20: The End of Tourism, the Beginning of Law?; Politics, democracy, and organisations -- Scapes, mobility and space -- Circulation, flows and security.
On 18 September 2014, Scots will decide their future: should the country quit the United Kingdom and take control of its own destiny, or should it remain part of what advocates call the most successful political and economic union of modern times? Everyone in the country has a stake in this decision. Now, in this fascinating and insightful new book, David Torrance charts the countdown to the big day, weaving his way through a minefield of claim and counterclaim, and knocking down fictions and fallacies from both Nationalists and Unionists. He plunges into the key questions that have shaped an often-fraught argument, from the future of the pound to the shape of an independent Scottish army. With access to the strategists and opinion-makers on both sides of the political divide, this book goes straight to the heart of the great debate, providing an incisive, authoritative, occasionally trenchant guide to the most dramatic constitutional question of our times - the battle for Britain.
